Well that was fun!
by Help I Have No Social Life
Summary: Hey, is that Batman! A realistic look at the DC universe through a SI that really only knows the basics and thinks this whole no killing thing is bullshit. (But no bashing because thats boring)
1. Chapter 1

I just wanted to see how many people would click on a story with a decent description.

There is nothing here just lots of bullshit to up the word count


	2. Chapter 2

A **wiki** (/ˈwɪki/ ( listen) _WIK__-ee_) is a knowledge base website on which users collaboratively modify content and structure directly from the web browser. In a typical wiki, text is written using a simplified markup language and often edited with the help of a rich-text editor.[1]

A wiki is run using wiki software, otherwise known as a wiki engine. A wiki engine is a type of content management system, but it differs from most other such systems, including blog software, in that the content is created without any defined owner or leader, and wikis have little inherent structure, allowing structure to emerge according to the needs of the users.[2] There are dozens of different wiki engines in use, both standalone and part of other software, such as bug tracking systems. Some wiki engines are open source, whereas others are proprietary. Some permit control over different functions (levels of access); for example, editing rights may permit changing, adding, or removing material. Others may permit access without enforcing access control. Other rules may be imposed to organize content.

The online encyclopedia project Wikipedia is the most popular wiki-based website, and is one of the most widely viewed sites in the world, having been ranked in the top ten since 2007.[3] Wikipedia is not a single wiki but rather a collection of hundreds of wikis, with each one pertaining to a specific language. In addition to Wikipedia, there are hundreds of thousands of other wikis in use, both public and private, including wikis functioning as knowledge management resources, notetaking tools, community websites, and intranets. The English-language Wikipedia has the largest collection of articles: as of September 2016, it had over five million articles. Ward Cunningham, the developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described wiki as "the simplest online database that could possibly work".[4] "Wiki" (pronounced [ˈwiki][note 1]) is a Hawaiian word meaning "quick"

Entrepreneur Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson founded National Allied Publications in autumn 1934.[1][10][11] The company debuted with the tabloid-sized _New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine_ #1 with a cover date of February 1935.[12][13] The company's second title, _New Comics_ #1 (Dec. 1935), appeared in a size close to what would become comic books' standard during the period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books, with slightly larger dimensions than today's.[14] That title evolved into _Adventure Comics_, which continued through issue #503 in 1983, becoming one of the longest-running comic-book series. In 2009 DC revived _Adventure Comics_ with its original numbering.[15] In 1935, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the future creators of Superman, created Doctor Occult, who is the earliest DC Comics character to still be in the DC Universe.

Wheeler-Nicholson's third and final title, _Detective Comics_, advertised with a cover illustration dated December 1936, eventually premiered three months late with a March 1937 cover date. The themed anthology series would become a sensation with the introduction of Batman in issue #27 (May 1939). By then, however, Wheeler-Nicholson had gone. In 1937, in debt to printing-plant owner and magazine distributor Harry Donenfeld—who also published pulp magazines and operated as a principal in the magazine distributorship Independent News—Wheeler-Nicholson had to take Donenfeld on as a partner in order to publish _Detective Comics_ #1. **Detective Comics, Inc.** was formed, with Wheeler-Nicholson and Jack S. Liebowitz, Donenfeld's accountant, listed as owners. Major Wheeler-Nicholson remained for a year, but cash-flow problems continued, and he was forced out. Shortly afterwards, Detective Comics, Inc. purchased the remains of National Allied, also known as Nicholson Publishing, at a bankruptcy auction.[16]

Detective Comics, Inc. soon launched a fourth title, _Action Comics_, the premiere of which introduced Superman. _Action Comics_ #1 (June 1938), the first comic book to feature the new character archetype—soon known as "superheroes"—proved a sales hit. The company quickly introduced such other popular characters as the Sandman and Batman.

On February 22, 2010, a copy of _Action Comics_ #1 (June 1938) sold at an auction from an anonymous seller to an anonymous buyer for $1 million, besting the $317,000 record for a comic book set by a different copy, in lesser condition, the previous year.[17]

In the mid-1950s, editorial director Irwin Donenfeld and publisher Liebowitz directed editor Julius Schwartz (whose roots lay in the science-fiction book market) to produce a one-shot Flash story in the try-out title _Showcase_. Instead of reviving the old character, Schwartz had writers Robert Kanigher and John Broome, penciler Carmine Infantino, and inker Joe Kubert create an entirely new super-speedster, updating and modernizing the Flash's civilianidentity, costume, and origin with a science-fiction bent. The Flash's reimagining in _Showcase_ #4 (October 1956) proved sufficiently popular that it soon led to a similar revamping of the Green Lantern character, the introduction of the modern all-star team Justice League of America (JLA), and many more superheroes, heralding what historians and fans call the Silver Age of comic books.

National did not reimagine its continuing characters (primarily Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman), but radically overhauled them. The Superman family of titles, under editor Mort Weisinger, introduced such enduring characters as Supergirl, Bizarro, and Brainiac. The Batman titles, under editor Jack Schiff, introduced the successful Batwoman, Bat-Girl, Ace the Bat-Hound, and Bat-Mite in an attempt to modernize the strip with non-science-fiction elements. Schwartz, together with artist Infantino, then revitalized Batman in what the company promoted as the "New Look", re-emphasizing Batman as a detective. Meanwhile, editor Kanigher successfully introduced a whole family of Wonder Woman characters having fantastic adventures in a mythological context.

Since the 1940s, when Superman, Batman, and many of the company's other heroes began appearing in stories together, DC's characters inhabited a shared continuity that, decades later, was dubbed the "DC Universe" by fans. With the story "Flash of Two Worlds", in _Flash_ #123 (September 1961), editor Schwartz (with writer Gardner Fox and artists Infantino and Joe Giella) introduced a concept that allowed slotting the 1930s and 1940s Golden Age heroes into this continuity via the explanation that they lived on an other-dimensional "Earth 2", as opposed to the modern heroes' "Earth 1"—in the process creating the foundation for what would later be called the DC Multiverse.

DC's introduction of the reimagined superheroes did not go unnoticed by other comics companies. In 1961, with DC's JLA as the specific spur,[n 1] Marvel Comics writer-editor Stan Lee and a robust creator Jack Kirby ushered in the sub-Silver Age "Marvel Age" of comics with the debut issue of _The Fantastic Four_.[23] Reportedly, DC ignored the initial success of Marvel with this editorial change until its consistently strengthening sales, albeit also benefiting Independent News' business as their distributor as well, made that impossible. That commercial situation especially applied with Marvel's superior sell-through percentage numbers which were typically 70% to DC's roughly 50%, which meant DC's publications were barely making a profit in comparison after returns from the distributors were calculated while Marvel was making an excellent profit by comparison.[24]

However, the senior DC staff were reportedly at a loss at this time to understand how this small publishing house was achieving this increasingly threatening commercial strength. For instance, when Marvel's product was examined in a meeting, Marvel's emphasis on more sophisticated character-based narrative and artist-driven visual storytelling was apparently ignored for self-deluding guesses at the brand's popularity which included superficial reasons like the presence of the color red or word balloons on the cover, or that the perceived crudeness of the interior art was somehow more appealing to readers. When Lee learned about DC's subsequent experimental attempts to imitate these perceived details, he amused himself by arranging direct defiance of those assumptions in Marvel's publications as sales strengthened further to frustrate the competition.[25]

However, this ignorance of Marvel's true appeal did not extend to some of the writing talent during this period, from which there were some attempts to emulate Marvel's narrative approach. For instance, there was the _Doom Patrol_ series by Arnold Drake, a writer who previously warned the management of the new rival's strength;[26] a superhero team of outsiders who resented their freakish powers,[27] which Drake later speculated was plagiarized by Stan Lee to create _The X-Men_.[28] There was also the young Jim Shooter who purposely emulated Marvel's writing when he wrote for DC after much study of both companies' styles, such as for the _Legion of Super-Heroes_ feature.[29]

A 1966 Batman TV show on the ABC network sparked a temporary spike in comic book sales, and a brief fad for superheroes in Saturday morning animation (Filmation created most of DC's initial cartoons) and other media. DC significantly lightened the tone of many DC comics—particularly _Batman_ and _Detective Comics_—to better complement the "camp" tone of the TV series. This tone coincided with the famous "Go-Go Checks" checkerboard cover-dress which featured a black-and-white checkerboard strip (all DC books cover dated February 1966 until August 1967) at the top of each comic, a misguided attempt by then-managing editor Irwin Donenfeld to make DC's output "stand out on the newsracks".[30] In particular, DC artist, Carmine Infantino, complained that the visual cover distinctiveness made DC's titles easier for readers to see and then avoid in favor of Marvel's titles.[31]

In 1967, Batman artist Infantino (who had designed popular Silver Age characters Batgirl and the Phantom Stranger) rose from art director to become DC's editorial director. With the growing popularity of upstart rival Marvel Comics threatening to topple DC from its longtime number-one position in the comics industry, he attempted to infuse the company with more focus towards marketing new and existing titles and characters with more adult sensibilities towards an emerging older age group of superhero comic book fans that grew out of Marvel's efforts to market their superhero line to college-aged adults. He also recruited major talents such as ex-Marvel artist and Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko and promising newcomers Neal Adams and Denny O'Neil and replaced some existing DC editors with artist-editors, including Joe Kubert and Dick Giordano, to give DC's output a more artistic critical eye.

Following the science-fiction innovations of the Silver Age, the comics of the 1970s and 1980s would become known as the Bronze Age, as fantasy gave way to more naturalistic and sometimes darker themes. Illegal drug use, banned by the Comics Code Authority, explicitly appeared in comics for the first time in Marvel Comics' story "Green Goblin Reborn!" in _The Amazing Spider-Man_#96 (May 1971), and after the Code's updating in response, DC offered a drug-fueled storyline in writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Neal Adams' _Green Lantern_, beginning with the story "Snowbirds Don't Fly" in the retitled _Green Lantern / Green Arrow_ #85 (September 1971), which depicted Speedy, the teen sidekick of superhero archer Green Arrow, as having become a heroin addict.

Jenette Kahn, a former children's magazine publisher, replaced Infantino as editorial director in January 1976. DC had attempted to compete with the now-surging Marvel by dramatically increasing its output and attempting to win the market by flooding it. This included launching series featuring such new characters as _Firestorm_ and _Shade, the Changing Man_, as well as an increasing array of non-superhero titles, in an attempt to recapture the pre-Wertham days of post-War comicdom. In June 1978, five months before the release of the first Superman movie, Kahn expanded the linefurther, increasing the number of titles and story pages, and raising the price from 35 cents to 50 cents. Most series received eight-page back-up features while some had full-length twenty-five-page stories. This was a move the company called the "DC Explosion".[33] The move was not successful, however, and corporate parent Warner dramatically cut back on these largely unsuccessful titles, firing many staffers in what industry watchers dubbed "the DC Implosion".[34] In September 1978, the line was dramatically reduced and standard-size books returned to 17 story pages but for a still increased 40 cents.[35] By 1980, the books returned to 50 cents with a 25-page story count but the story pages replaced house ads in the books.

Seeking new ways to boost market share, the new team of publisher Kahn, vice president Paul Levitz, and managing editor Giordano addressed the issue of talent instability. To that end—and following the example of Atlas/Seaboard Comics[36] and such independent companies as Eclipse Comics—DC began to offer royalties in place of the industry-standard work-for-hire agreement in which creators worked for a flat fee and signed away all rights, giving talent a financial incentive tied to the success of their work. As it happened, the implementation of these incentives proved opportune considering Marvel Comics' Editor-in-Chief, Jim Shooter, was alienating much of his company's creative staff with his authoritarian manner and major talents there went to DC like Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, Marv Wolfman, and George Perez.[37]

In addition, emulating the era's new television form, the miniseries while addressing the matter of an excessive number of ongoing titles fizzling out within a few issues of their start, DC created the industry concept of the comic book limited series. This publishing format allowed for the deliberate creation of finite storylines within a more flexible publishing format that could showcase creations without forcing the talent into unsustainable open-ended commitments. The first such title was _World of Krypton_ in 1979, and its positive results lead to subsequent similar titles and later more ambitious productions like _Camelot 3000_ for the direct market in 1982.[38]

These changes in policy shaped the future of the medium as a whole, and in the short term allowed DC to entice creators away from rival Marvel, and encourage stability on individual titles. In November 1980 DC launched the ongoing series _The New Teen Titans_, by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez, two popular talents with a history of success. Their superhero-team comic, superficially similar to Marvel's ensemble series _X-Men_, but rooted in DC history, earned significant sales[39] in part due to the stability of the creative team, who both continued with the title for six full years. In addition, Wolfman and Pérez took advantage of the limited-series option to create a spin-off title, _Tales of the New Teen Titans_, to present origin stories of their original characters without having to break the narrative flow of the main series or oblige them to double their work load with another ongoing title.

**Modern Age**[edit]

_Main article: __Modern Age of Comic Books_

This successful revitalization of the Silver Age Teen Titans led DC's editors[40] to seek the same for the wider DC Universe. The result, the Wolfman/Pérez 12-issue limited series _Crisis on Infinite Earths_, gave the company an opportunity to realign and jettison some of the characters' complicated backstory and continuity discrepancies. A companion publication, two volumes entitled _The History of the DC Universe_, set out the revised history of the major DC characters. _Crisis_ featured many key deaths that would shape the DC Universe for the following decades, and separate the timeline of DC publications into pre- and post-"Crisis".

Meanwhile, a parallel update had started in the non-superhero and horror titles. Since early 1984, the work of British writer Alan Moore had revitalized the horror series _The Saga of the Swamp Thing_, and soon numerous British writers, including Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison, began freelancing for the company. The resulting influx of sophisticated horror-fantasy material led to DC in 1993 establishing the Vertigo mature-readers imprint, which did not subscribe to the Comics Code Authority.[41]

Two DC limited series, _Batman: The Dark Knight Returns_ by Frank Miller and _Watchmen_ by Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, drew attention in the mainstream press for their dark psychological complexity and promotion of the antihero.[42] These titles helped pave the way for comics to be more widely accepted in literary-criticism circles and to make inroads into the book industry, with collected editions of these series as commercially successful trade paperbacks.[_citation needed_]

The mid-1980s also saw the end of many long-running DC war comics, including series that had been in print since the 1960s. These titles, all with over 100 issues, included _Sgt. Rock_, _G.I. Combat_, _The Unknown Soldier_, and _Weird War Tales_.

**Time Warner/AOL Time Warner/WarnerMedia unit (1990–present)**[edit]

In March 1989, Warner Communications merged with Time Inc., making DC Comics a subsidiary of Time Warner. In June, the first Tim Burton directed Batman movie was released, and DC began publishing its hardcover series of DC Archive Editions, collections of many of their early, key comics series, featuring rare and expensive stories unseen by many modern fans. Restoration for many of the Archive Editions was handled by Rick Keene with colour restoration by DC's long-time resident colourist, Bob LeRose. These collections attempted to retroactively credit many of the writers and artists who had worked without much recognition for DC during the early period of comics when individual credits were few and far between.

The comics industry experienced a brief boom in the early 1990s, thanks to a combination of speculative purchasing (mass purchase of the books as collectible items, with intent to resell at a higher value as the rising value of older issues, was thought to imply that _all_ comics would rise dramatically in price) and several storylines which gained attention from the mainstream media. DC's extended storylines in which Superman was killed, Batman was crippled and superhero _Green Lantern_ turned into the supervillain Parallax resulted in dramatically increased sales, but the increases were as temporary as the hero's replacements. Sales dropped off as the industry went into a major slump, while manufactured "collectables" numbering in the millions replaced quality with quantity until fans and speculators alike deserted the medium in droves.

DC's Piranha Press and other imprints (including the mature readers line Vertigo, and Helix, a short-lived science fiction imprint) were introduced to facilitate compartmentalized diversification and allow for specialized marketing of individual product lines. They increased the use of non-traditional contractual arrangements, including the dramatic rise of creator-owned projects, leading to a significant increase in critically lauded work (much of it for Vertigo) and the licensing of material from other companies. DC also increased publication of book-store friendly formats, including trade paperback collections of individual serial comics, as well as original graphic novels.

One of the other imprints was Impact Comics from 1991 to 1992 in which the Archie Comics superheroes were licensed and revamped.[43][44] The stories in the line were part of its own shared universe.[45]

DC entered into a publishing agreement with Milestone Media that gave DC a line of comics featuring a culturally and racially diverse range of superhero characters. Although the Milestone line ceased publication after a few years, it yielded the popular animated series _Static Shock_. DC established Paradox Press to publish material such as the large-format _Big Book of..._ series of multi-artist interpretations on individual themes, and such crime fiction as the graphic novel _Road to Perdition_. In 1998, DC purchased WildStorm Comics, Jim Lee's imprint under the Image Comicsbanner, continuing it for many years as a wholly separate imprint – and fictional universe – with its own style and audience. As part of this purchase, DC also began to publish titles under the fledgling WildStorm sub-imprint America's Best Comics (ABC), a series of titles created by Alan Moore, including _The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen_, _Tom Strong_, and _Promethea_. Moore strongly contested this situation, and DC eventually stopped publishing ABC.

**2000s**[edit]

In March 2003 DC acquired publishing and merchandising rights to the long-running fantasy series _Elfquest_, previously self-published by creators Wendy and Richard Pini under their WaRP Graphics publication banner. This series then followed another non-DC title, Tower Comics' series T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, in collection into DC Archive Editions. In 2004 DC temporarily acquired the North American publishing rights to graphic novels from European publishers 2000 AD and Humanoids. It also rebranded its younger-audience titles with the mascot Johnny DC and established the CMX imprint to reprint translated manga. In 2006, CMX took over from Dark Horse Comics publication of the webcomic _Megatokyo_ in print form. DC also took advantage of the demise of Kitchen Sink Press and acquired the rights to much of the work of Will Eisner, such as his _The Spirit_ series and his graphic novels.

In 2004, DC began laying the groundwork for a full continuity-reshuffling sequel to _Crisis on Infinite Earths_, promising substantial changes to the DC Universe (and side-stepping the 1994 _Zero Hour_ event which similarly tried to ret-con the history of the DCU). In 2005, the critically lauded _Batman Begins_ film was released; also, the company published several limited series establishing increasingly escalated conflicts among DC's heroes, with events climaxing in the _Infinite Crisis_ limited series. Immediately after this event, DC's ongoing series jumped forward a full year in their in-story continuity, as DC launched a weekly series, _52_, to gradually fill in the missing time. Concurrently, DC lost the copyright to "Superboy" (while retaining the trademark) when the heirs of Jerry Siegel used a provision of the 1976 revision to the copyright law to regain ownership.

In 2005, DC launched its "All-Star" line (evoking the title of the 1940s publication), designed to feature some of the company's best-known characters in stories that eschewed the long and convoluted continuity of the DC Universe. The line began with _All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder_ and _All-Star Superman_, with _All-Star Wonder Woman_ and _All-Star Batgirl_ announced in 2006 but neither being released nor scheduled as of the end of 2009.[46]

DC licensed characters from the Archie Comics imprint Red Circle Comics by 2007.[47] They appeared in the Red Circle line, based in the DC Universe, with a series of one-shots followed by a miniseries that lead into two ongoing titles, each lasting 10 issues.[45][48]

**2010s**[edit]

In 2011, DC rebooted all of its running titles following the Flashpoint storyline. The reboot called The New 52 gave new origin stories and costume designs to many of DC's characters.

DC licensed pulp characters including Doc Savage and the Spirit which it then used, along with some DC heroes, as part of the First Wave comics line launched in 2010 and lasting through fall 2011.[49][50][51]

In May 2011, DC announced it would begin releasing digital versions of their comics on the same day as paper versions.[52]

On June 1, 2011, DC announced that it would end all ongoing series set in the DC Universe in August and relaunch its comic line with 52 issue #1s, starting with _Justice League_ on August 31 (written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Jim Lee), with the rest to follow later on in September.[53][54]

On June 4, 2013, DC unveiled two new digital comic innovations to enhance interactivity: _DC__2_ and _DC__2__ Multiverse_. _DC__2_ layers dynamic artwork onto digital comic panels, adding a new level of dimension to digital storytelling, while _DC__2__ Multiverse_ allows readers to determine a specific story outcome by selecting individual characters, storylines and plot developments while reading the comic, meaning one digital comic has multiple outcomes. _DC__2_ will first appear in the upcoming digital-first title, _Batman '66_, based on the 1960s television series and _DC__2__ Multiverse_ will first appear in _Batman: Arkham Origins_, a digital-first title based on the video game of the same name.[55]

In 2014, DC announced an eight-issue miniseries titled _"Convergence"_ which began in April 2015.[56][57][58][59]

In 2016, DC announced a line-wide relaunch titled DC Rebirth.[60] The new line would launch with an 80-page one-shot titled DC Universe: Rebirth, written by Geoff Johns, with art from Gary Frank, Ethan Van Sciver, and more. After that, many new series would launch with a twice-monthly release schedule and new creative teams for nearly every title. The relaunch was meant to bring back the legacy and heart many felt had been missing from DC characters since the launch of the New 52. Rebirth brought huge success, both financially and critically.[61][62][63]

**DC Entertainment, Inc.** is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. that manages its comic book units and intellectual property (characters) in other units as they work with other Warner Bros units.

In September 2009, Warner Bros. announced that DC Comics would become a subsidiary of DC Entertainment, Inc., with Diane Nelson, President of Warner Premiere, becoming president of the newly formed holding company and DC Comics President and Publisher Paul Levitz moving to the position of Contributing Editor and Overall Consultant there.[64] Warner Bros. and DC Comics have been owned by the same company since 1969.

On February 18, 2010, DC Entertainment named Jim Lee and Dan DiDio as Co-Publishers of DC Comics, Geoff Johns as Chief Creative Officer, John Rood as EVP (Executive Vice President) of Sales, Marketing and Business Development, and Patrick Caldon as EVP of Finance and Administration.[65]

In October 2013, DC Entertainment announced that the DC Comics offices would be moved from New York City to Warner Bros. Burbank, California, headquarters in 2015. The other units, animation, movie, TV and portfolio planning, had preceded DC Comics by moving there in 2010.[66]

DC Entertainment announced its first franchise, the DC Super Hero Girls universe, in April 2015 with multi-platform content, toys and apparel to start appearing in 2016.[67]

Warner Bros. Pictures reorganized in May 2016 to have genre responsible film executives, thus DC Entertainment franchise films under Warner Bros. were placed under a newly created division, DC Films, created under Warner Bros. executive vice president Jon Berg and DC chief content officer Geoff Johns. This was done in the same vein as Marvel Studios in unifying DC-related filmmaking under a single vision and clarifying the greenlighting process. Johns also kept his existing role at DC Comics.[68] Johns was promoted to DC president & CCO with the addition of his DC Films while still reporting to DCE President Nelson.[69] In August 2016, Amit Desai was promoted from senior vice president, marketing & global franchise management to exec vice president, business and marketing strategy, direct-to-consumer and global franchise management.[70]

DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Digital Networks announced in April 2017 DC Universe digital service to be launched in 2018 with two original series.[71][72]

With frustration over DC Films not matching Marvel Studios' results and Berg wanting to step back to being a producer in January 2018, it was announced that Warner Bros. executive Walter Hamada was appointed president of DC film production.[73] After a leave of absence starting in March 2018, Diane Nelson resigned as president of DC Entertainment. The company's executive management were to report to WB Chief Digital Officer Thomas Gewecke until a new president is selected.[74] In June 2018, Johns was also moved out of his position as chief creative officer and DC Entertainment president for a writing and producing deal with the DC and WB companies. Jim Lee added DC Entertainment chief creative officer title to his DC co-publisher post.[75] In September 2018, DC became part of the newly-created Warner Bros. Global Brands and Experiences division overseen by President Pam Lifford.[

The fact that DC Comics characters coexisted in the same world was first established in _All Star Comics_ #3 (1940) where several superheroes (who starred in separate stories in the series up to that point) met each other in a group dubbed the Justice Society of America. Subsequently, the Justice Society was reintroduced as the Justice League of America, which was founded with Major League Baseball's National League and American League as inspiration for the name. The comic book that introduced the Justice League was titled _The Brave and the Bold_.[1] However, the majority of National/DC's publications continued to be written with little regard of maintaining continuity with each other for the first few decades.

Silver Age[edit]

_Main article:__Silver Age of Comic Books_

Over the course of its publishing history, DC has introduced different versions of its characters, sometimes presenting them as if the earlier version had never existed, among them the Flash,[2]Green Lantern,[3] and Hawkman,[4] in the late 1950s, with similar powers but different names and personal histories. Similarly, they had characters such as Batman whose early adventures set in the 1940s could not easily be reconciled with stories featuring a still-youthful man in the 1970s. To explain this, they introduced the idea of the Multiverse in _Flash_ #123 (1961) where the Silver Age Flash met his Golden Age counterpart. In addition to allowing the conflicting stories to "co-exist", it allowed the differing versions of characters to meet, and even team up to combat cross-universe threats. The writers gave designations such as "Earth-One", "Earth-Two", and so forth, to certain universes, designations which at times were also used by the characters themselves.[5] **Earth-One**was the primary world of this publication era.

_Crisis on Infinite Earths_[edit]

_Main article:__Crisis on Infinite Earths_

Over the years, as the number of titles published increased and the volume of past stories accumulated, it became increasingly difficult to maintain internal consistency. In the face of diminishing sales, maintaining the status quo of their most popular characters became attractive.[6] Although retcons were used as a way to explain apparent inconsistencies in stories written, editors at DC came to consider the varied continuity of multiple Earths too difficult to keep track of, and feared that it was an obstacle to accessibility for new readers. To address this, they published the cross-universe miniseries _Crisis on Infinite Earths_ in 1985, which merged universes and characters, reducing the Multiverse to **a single unnamed universe** with a single history.[7]

However, not all the books rebooted post-Crisis. For example, the Legion of Superheroes book acted as if the Pre-Crisis Earth-1 history was still their past, a point driven home in the _Cosmic Boy_miniseries. It also removed the mechanism DC had been using to deal with continuity glitches or storylines that a later writer wanted to ignore (which is how Earths B and E how came into existence) resulting in a convoluted explanation for characters like Hawkman.

The _Zero Hour_ limited series (1994) gave them an opportunity to revise timelines and rewrite the DC Universe history. However this failed right out of the gate as the writers had Waverider state all alternate histories had been wiped and yet have the _Armageddon 2001_ saga in the timeline which required multiple timelines to work.

As a result, almost once per decade since the 1980s, the DC Universe experiences a major crisis that allows any number of changes from new versions of characters to appear as a whole rebootof the universe, restarting nominally all the characters into a new and modernized version of their lives.

Meanwhile, DC has published occasional stories called _Elseworlds_, which often presented alternate versions of its characters. One told the story of Bruce Wayne as a Green Lantern. In another tale, _Superman: Speeding Bullets_, the rocket ship that brought the infant Superman to Earth was discovered by the Wayne family of Gotham City rather than the Kents.

In 1999, _The Kingdom_ reintroduced a variant of the old Multiverse concept called Hypertime which essentially allows for alternate versions of characters and worlds again. The entire process was possibly inspired by Alan Moore's meta-comic, _Supreme: Story of the Year_(1997).

The _Convergence_ (2015) crossover officially retconned the events of _Crisis_ after heroes in that series went back in time to prevent the collapse of the Multiverse.[8] However, Brainiac states "Each world has evolved but they all still exist".[9] It has been confirmed that all previous worlds and timelines now exist, and that there even multiple Multiverses now in existence, such as the Pre-_Crisis_infinite Multiverse, the collapsed Earth, and the Pre-_New 52_ 52 worlds Multiverse.

_Infinite Crisis_[edit]

_Main article:__Infinite Crisis_

The _Infinite Crisis_ event (2005–2006) remade the DC Universe yet again, with new changes. The limited series _52_ (2006–2007) established that a new multiverse now existed, with **Earth-0** as the primary Earth.

_The New 52_[edit]

_Main article:__The New 52_

The 2011 reboot of the DC Universe coincided with DC's publishing event _The New 52_, during which the publisher cancelled its ongoing titles and relaunched 52 new books, including a number of new books, set within a revised continuity. This follows the conclusion of the _Flashpoint_ crossover storyline, which provided a jumping-off point for the existing continuity. A number of in-universe changes are intended to make characters more modern and accessible, though the scope of the changes varies from character to character. Some like Batman have their histories left largely intact, though compressed, while others were given wildly different histories and looks. DC stopped putting 'The New 52' logo on its publications in the summer of 2015, coinciding with the _Convergence_ anniversary crossover event which celebrated the history of the DC Multiverse and its various incarnations.

_DC Rebirth_[edit]

_Main article:__DC Rebirth_

In February 2016, DC announced its _DC Rebirth_ initiative, a line-wide relaunch of its titles, to begin in June 2016. Beginning with an 80-page one-shot which was released on May 25, 2016, _DC Rebirth_ also sees _Action Comics_ and _Detective Comics_ return to their previous numbering (#957 and #934 respectively), all books releasing at US$2.99, multiple books shifting to a twice-monthly release schedule, a number of existing titles relaunching with new #1s, and the release of several new titles.[10][11] DC has used the _Green Lantern: Rebirth_ and _The Flash: Rebirth_ miniseries as examples of the basis for the initiative, which has been described as a rebirth of the DC Universe. The _DC Rebirth_ initiative will reintroduce concepts from pre-_Flashpoint_ continuity, such as legacy, that have been lost with _The New 52_ and build "on everything that's been published since Action Comics #1 up thru The New 52."[10]

_DC Universe_[edit]

In October 2017, DC revealed that they would be discontinuing the Rebirth branding and logo from their titles in December 2017, releasing everything under a single umbrella title as the _DC Universe_. Coincided with the release of the New Age of Heroes imprint, DiDio explained, "We want to make it clear that this is all the DC Universe... Rebirth pretty much _is_ the DCU now; while we're taking Rebirth off the books, we'll be following the direction that Rebirth established." Titles also received new trade dress, with those "that tie in clearly to our larger DC Universe" having a "DCU logo on them" in addition to corner boxes with icons of the characters to help identify the family of titles; titles outside the DCU, such as _Injustice: Gods Among Us_ and _DC Bombshells_ would simply have the DC logo on them. DiDio also added that the Young Animal imprint would continue as a separate line of titles.[12]

**Official in-canon timeline****[****edit****]**

The following official timeline is divided in four ages:

The Heroic Age: The arrival of Superman on Earth before Wonder Woman appearing during World War II.

The Space Age: The public appearance of Superman.

The Age of Crisis: The events of several "Crises" around the Multiverse.

The Flashpoint Age: The aftermath of the Flashpoint and the New 52


End file.
